1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a foldable chair, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a readily foldable chair having a forced air cooling system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As an alternative to being indoors, people all over the world have enjoyed spending their free time at outdoor events. Particularly in America, football has been an extremely popular outdoor sport to attend. In fact, many people no longer just attend the football game itself, but also arrive early to the surrounding parking lots of the stadiums to participate in, what has become known as, tailgating.
Tailgating typically involves grilling food, consuming beverages and socializing while standing around the back, or tail, of the parked cars in the parking lot until the football game begins. The popularity of tailgating in the past few decades has started to attract many families to the parking lots of college and professional stadiums alike as a great way to spend a weekend together outside even if they do not actually have tickets to the games. As people began spending more time tailgating, instead of just in the games, they also started spending more money on tailgating equipment like portable chairs so they could relax and be more comfortable during their tailgating experience.
Similar to the big football stadium tailgating crowds, many children's sports also attract a large number of outdoor spectators. Often times these spectators, however, are not afforded the pleasure of event seating while watching the games, as at the college and professional sports events, and are compelled to bring their own seating or chairs so as to watch the game in comfort.
For example, two of the most popular children's outdoor-sports in the past few years have been baseball and soccer. Baseball has long since been the national past time of Americans and with the more recent televised exposure of the Little League World Series, more kids have been encouraged to play baseball and in turn more parents have been going to their games, which has increased the need for more portable seating. Likewise, with Major League Soccer's recent acquisitions of world superstar players, more kids have been excited and enthused to play soccer, which again, has increased the need for more portable seating for the spectators.
The portable “lawn chair” of years past quickly evolved from the single-directionally (Y direction) foldable chair to a more compact foldable chair that folds in both the X and Y direction. As the demand for more portable seating increased the folding designs implemented to reduce the amount of space taken up by the folded chairs became less awkward and easier to use. Thus, these chairs are now more easily foldable and foldable in such a way as to minimize the amount of space needed when the chairs are packed away in the back of vehicles.
Keeping in mind that most children's outdoor-sports are during the summer months, and that the college and professional football seasons, as well as professional soccer, span the summer months too, the earlier designed portable chairs were slightly uncomfortable to sit in during the summer time because the back portions of an individual would be flush to the chair, accumulating perspiration between the chair and the individual's back. In order to maintain structural stability and provide ventilation to the individual's back, many designs implemented a meshed backrest to the foldable chairs. These designs, however, only provided passive air to the back of the individual.
Therefore, it should come as a surprise that a compact, foldable chair that includes a forced air cooling system has not been developed and constructed heretofore in the prior art so as to provide seating and cooling comfort to an individual who is out-of-doors during the hot summer months. Because a device like this is not found in the prior art, it is desirable to provide a foldable chair with a forced air cooling system to people for enjoying the outdoors in a relaxing and comfortably cooling fashion. It is also desirable that the foldable chair with a forced air cooling system be formed of a lightweight durable construction, be relatively easy to be transported, and be compact so as to be stored in a minimal amount of space.
A prior art search directed to the subject matter of this application in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office revealed the following Letters Patent:
4,141,5855,372,4025,382,0755,403,0655,692,9526,626,4886,629,7246,676,2076,786,2736,840,5767,070,231
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,585 to Blackman discloses a folding cooling lounge chair. The transportable chair has multiple folding sections which each has a porous end. A plurality of vents is located on each porous section for the purpose of permitting air flow to the exterior of the cooling chair. The chair includes a compartment, which powers the electric fan via a power switch.
Further, there is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,840,576 to Ekern et al. a ventilated seat pad assembly for use with a chair. A seat pad has an upper surface area which is formed of a porous spacer fabric material. The pad includes a tongue, which is coupled to a fan. The fan may be located in several different locations on the pad and is coupled to a power source.
Furthermore, the patent to Shih, U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,075, discloses a chair seat with a ventilation device. The ventilation device comprises a chair seat and an air-blowing unit. The ventilation device includes a slip-proof cover which is furnished with several vent ports to facilitate air circulation. The air-blowing unit includes a motor, a ventilation hose and a fan.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,676,207 to Rauh et al. discloses a system that can be used in conjunction with any seating applications where climate control is desirable. The system has a seat pad, which has an air-permeable surface area. Adjacent and beneath the surface area is a heating element. The system also includes a fan/blower for circulating the warm air throughout the system.
The remaining patents, listed above but not specifically discussed, are deemed to be only of general interest and show the state of the art in cooling chairs.
None of the prior art discussed above discloses a compact, foldable chair that includes a forced air cooling system with a re-chargeable power source that is enclosed within a housing, and which, is of a lightweight durable construction, affordable in cost, and is relatively easy to be transported and operated by the average user.